the four college students implicated found guilty of harassment, but not of the suicide of the teenager

Four college students from Golbey (Vosges) were found guilty, Monday, June 5, of school harassment towards Lucas, who killed himself on January 7. The Epinal children’s court, on the other hand, did not hold their responsibility for the suicide of the teenager.

At the hearing, which was held behind closed doors on April 3, the prosecution had not requested recognition of the harassment as the cause of the suicide, thus contradicting its own conclusions made at the end of the investigation. Provisional educational measures have been pronounced against the four college students pending the next hearing which will decide on their sanctions, set for January 22, 2024. They face up to 18 months in prison.

“I will fight until the end”

Séverine, Lucas’ mother, shared her “relief”. “The verdict that has been handed down is good because harassment is serious. Everyone needs to be aware of it”said the young woman after the decision was delivered.

“I was waiting for my son to be recognized as a victim of school bullying, that’s all I owed him, it’s my fight now. I’m going to fight until the end, so that it stops. We’re going to lead actions so that the harassers question themselves, so that the victims say to themselves that they do not have to undergo this”she continued.

Lucas committed suicide after writing a note expressing his desire to end his life. The teenager’s relatives had denounced acts of harassment, revealing the mockery and homophobic insults of which he had said he was the victim from other students at his college.